Truth: Because of their $100,000+ tax breaks, they are now paying an increased percentage of a smaller bill. For example, income tax revenues were 1,004 billion in 2000 and they were 927.2 billion in 2005. (to make the point better they fell from 10.4% of GDP to 8.5% of GDP) So, yeah the rich are paying a higher percentage of the smaller total bill, but they also got a larger percentage of the $206 billion in tax cuts, making them a very large beneficiary of Republican generosity.

WSJ: "In 1980, when the top income tax rate was 70%, the richest 1% paid only 19% of all income taxes; now, with a top rate of 35%, they pay more than double that share. With lower rates and fewer tax loopholes after the 1986 reform, there is less incentive to shelter income to avoid tax."

Truth: Another apples to oranges comparison. In 1980, the top 5% got 15.8% of the national income, in 2001 they got 22.4%. Yeah, you are gonna pay a higher percentage of taxes if your fucking share of income goes up.

WSJ: "First, America continues to be a society of upward income mobility. Over the past decade, millions of Americans have joined the once highly exclusive club of six- and seven-figure earners. Some 304,000 Americans earned $1 million or more in annual income in 2005, compared to 110,000 in 1996 and 176,000 in 2000. Because there is no cap on the top income share, this increase in millionaires pushes the top income (and taxes paid) share higher. The number of millionaire households in net worth also increased to nine million in 2006, up from six million in 2001, according to TNS, a global market research firm."

Truth: The rich getting richer, does not show "upward income mobility". Do not even try to make me laugh with this. Less than 2% of all households make over $250,000. If some in this elite group move from an income below $1 million to an income above it, that is hardly a Horatio Alger rags to riches story. Same for the less than 20% of households that make over $85,000.

"In a way, this one little dumb-a$$ editorial is a microcosm of the Journal's editorial page. How much is stupidity? How much is dishonesty, and how much is the Journal's just trusting that its readers rabid ideological convictions will blind them to gaping holes in their reasoning? Hard to say." Al Franken

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